Gnostic = neo-platonist...material world an illusion, spirit is real. Lewis goes there with his "shadowlands" analogy and in the last Narnia book...somewhat. I've never seen Tolkien go there, and he sneered at any attempt to "spiritualize" his stories. There are many variations on gnosticism but they all seem to hold esoteric knowledge above sensory experience.

As for GDT's little spiritual lessons - how do I do a search of his posts..? I'l dig them up and give you examples if you want. In the quote above, he almost does with his Plato's cave analogy...i.e. Tolkien must go OUTSIDE "Plato's cave" and construct his world. If you know Plato's cave and what it refers to, baiscally he is saying that Tolkien must travel beyond the illusion of his senses and construct Middle Earth. That's GDT's point of view, but I don't share it. I don't particularly want to go dig up old posts but I remember wincing a lot reading his posts because of these spiritual viewpoints he presents as "just so."